Behind the Box Office Window

Hello Blog Readers!

My name is Paul and I am a student at the University of Richmond as well as an employee of the Modlin Center. I work in the box office, and I have surely seen many of you over the past few months during my shifts. But, I am also doing something very exciting: I am the associate producer for the upcoming play reading of Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats.

I was invited by associate director David Howson to help with this year's play reading as part of the Modlin Center's Monday Night World Theater series, which over the years has brought incredibly talented actors together with innovative and exciting plays from all over the world.

This year's By the Bog of Cats was extremely popular among subscribers which is exciting yet mysterious because the play has only been produced a handful of times, and honestly, has a pretty strange name! Very soon, the actors and creative team for this production will be converging on Cousins Studio Theatre for just a short weekend before the reading on Monday February 18th.

WOW -- what feedback from Broadway fans!

It has been very exciting around the Modlin Center since Saturday afternoon. Following the 2 pm and 7:30 pm performances of Neil Berg's "100 Years of Broadway" on January 26, I sent a message to those patrons with e-mail addresses in our system. As always, I requested they post their personal review of the concert on our Web site. Well, the reviews started coming in and haven't stopped. We've broken a record for responses in the year we have been doing this. Every time I check the site, there is a new post. And we LOVE reading these posts and sharing with others around the office (or over the lunch table). Fans of this production, and there are many, have come out in full force to encourage us to book the company again.


This is the whole reason for our Audience Reviews site. It's not to collect e-mail addresses or make extra work for our patrons. It's to get honest feedback from the people we want to entertain. And to have them read and react to what others have posted. If we can get half the response to the other performances that we did to Neil Berg, we'll be on top of the world. So, think about writing a short review the next time come to the Modlin Center. And know that we will be waiting (somewhat impatiently) for it to post!

Talk Back a big success

The past two nights, patrons at the Modlin Center have been invited to stay around after the performance to have an intimate question and answer session with the artists. Since the production on stage was L.A. Theatre Works' "Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers" and the cast included actors John Heard, Gregory Harrison and Shannon Cochran, the audience was in for a huge treat. As everyone quickly learned, the topic under discussion--papers given to The Washington Post detailing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War--was just as timely today as it was then. And the actors were very forthcoming in discussing their thoughts surrounding these secret papers and the vast array of characters involved, from Katherine Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post, and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee to Daniel Ellsberg, the American military analyst who released the papers to the media.

Our post-performance Talk Backs have become increasingly popular with not only our patrons, but also the artists that visit campus. It's a wonderful opportunity for them to interact with the audience. In his response to one question the other night, Gregory Harrison said that one of the main reasons for his involvement with this production was to reach out to young people and hope that something on stage will resonate with them and get them thinking. Being on a college campus, we have a good number of young people in the audience, and I think Harrison reached a few of them!

If you missed thees sessions, check for our Modcast in the coming days. We recorded both evenings and we'll post them soon. And maybe next time, you'll stick around for an extra 15 minutes after a show and learn something new!

Samantha